N.Korea tested 'long-range' weapon

This picture taken on May 4, 2019 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows rocket launchers firing during a test of weapons in an undisclosed location in North Korea.

SOUTH KOREA: North Korea said Friday it had tested a long-range weapon, a claim that was likely to raise tensions on the peninsula and contradicted accounts from the South and in the US that Pyongyang had fired short-range missiles.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un had overseen Thursday's weapons test, the second in less than a week amid tensions with the US over their fitful drive to reach an agreement under which North Korea would give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief.

KCNA did not say what kind of weapon was fired. It avoided using the words missile, rocket or projectile. During an event at the White House, Trump said US authorities were looking at the latest projectile launches “very seriously.” “They were smaller missiles, short range missiles. Nobody's happy about it,” Trump told reporters.

Thursday's launch came hours after the US Special Representative on North Korea, Stephen Biegun, arrived in Seoul for talks with South Korean officials, in his first visit since the Hanoi summit.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Pyongyang's latest move had “an element of protest and is a pressuring action to steer the nuclear talks in a direction it desires”.

“It appears the North is highly displeased that the Hanoi summit ended without agreement,” he said in an interview marking his first two years in office.